


The lights went out

by Twin_Kitten



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Mentions of Suicide, Rock Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-07-12 06:47:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15989879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twin_Kitten/pseuds/Twin_Kitten
Summary: Kylo Ren is the lead singer of the Knights of Ren, an alternative/punk rock band under the Alliance Label. Rey is the lead singer of The Rebels under the same label. They are not friends. But when Phasma and Hux commit suicide, Rey sees a new side of Kylo, and bond during a remembrance tribute.





	The lights went out

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just... I'm sorry. This is just me weeping over my keyboard over some stuff and pounding it out to Linkin Park One More Light.
> 
> If you are triggered by mentions of suicide, do not read this. This might become a full fic at some point, but for now it is a oneshot.

Rey and Kylo had never gotten along. Not for any specific reason other than he was the badboy of the punkrock/alternative scene while she was the darling of the edgy pop-rock genre, the only thing they had in common was a deep love of music and a shared label. Sure, they took playful shots at each other in interviews, because for some reason parts of their fanbase overlapped and thought they should hook up. In a monotonous interview it was often fun to tease and make jokes about that, trading casual and mild insults through time and distance and airwaves and tv signals.

 

But hearing what happened 5 months ago, then hearing it again less than 3 months later… He didn’t deserve that.

 

_ Phasma, drummer for rock band Knights of Ren, found dead in a New York hotel room of apparent suicide. _

 

_ Armitage Hux, guitarist for Knights of Ren, found hanging dead in his hollywood home on the birthday of his deceased bandmate. _

 

The only Knight left in the court of Ren… Was Kylo. They didn’t get along, but she would never have wished that on him or his friends. She knew they were close, beyond what was fostered by being in a band together. Like her and Poe and Finn. And though Kylo and Rey had never gotten along the few times they spoke to each other, as the frequently only non-groupie girls at industry events, she and Phasma had interacted on many occasions. They hadn’t been friends, because that would have required hanging out beyond those functions and neither of them really had time, but they had respected each other and commiserated over being the only girl or token girl on tours and at events.

 

So when the label asked her and The Rebels to be part of the remembrance concert, she had agreed. They had practiced the music and song that they had been sent, without Kylo.

 

Rey Kanata and Kylo Ren didn’t get along. But that man backstage… Sitting alone, his head down and shoulders hunched, was not the Kylo she had met before. This was a man who was lost. Beaten down. Confused. So she told all the roadies and stage techs and backup musicians to be ready. To step up to play, to pull the plug, and have backup microphones ready in case… just… in case.

 

Rey didn’t know what she had expected. The Knights of Ren had been known for dark and angry music, the voice of angry teen white boys as she had often joked. But the song they had been sent was- introspective and mournful and moving. Apparently, Kylo and Hux had started writing it after Phasma passed.

 

Kylo had to finish it alone.

And the remembrance concert for her became a tribute for them.

 

Rey had seen their concerts. She knew how Kylo liked to explode onto the stage in a riot of music and movement and noise, jumping around and signing the moment he had a microphone. This was not that man. He walked with a somber silence to the center of the stage, letting the lights find him instead of chasing them, and stood as the music rose slowly around them.

 

Trading looks with Poe, silently telling him to be ready, Rey strummed her guitar in the opening blend. Kylo’s movements were sluggish as he did the same, his hand lackluster on the neck of his guitar and the movement of his pick was so small she was surprised any sound was coming out of his amp.

 

“Should have stayed, were there signs I ignored.” Kylo’s voice was haunting in a way that she had never noticed in his other faster songs. Haunted. “Can I help you not to hurt any more…” His head dropped just as the picture began projecting on the screen behind the stage. Huge pictures and silent videos of Phasma and Hux and Kylo, backstage and in concerts, and in their downtime together.

 

“We saw brilliance when the world was asleep,” Kylo was still singing, following the music as he should, but from behind him, Rey could see the quiver of his muscles, the shudder of his ribs as he hit a wrong note on his instrument. Then another. “There are things that we can have but can't keep.” His voice broke, and she knew in that instant, he wasn’t going to make it through the song.

 

Without hesitation she looked over her shoulder, nodding to the backup guitarist and the man at the mixer table began fading Kylo’s guitar and raising the volume on the backup. He noticed. For all that Rey might not have known or liked him, she knew he was a good musician. And he could tell his guitar was no longer projecting when he didn’t hear his mistakes. So he just stopped. He slipped the guitar strap over his head and let it slip from his finger to the stage with a clang of sound that made everyone wince, afraid of what was coming next.

 

Kylo was known for anger. So an explosive and violent outburst wouldn’t have been out of character. But he simply left the guitar, still trying to sing even as his voice choked on the words, his eyes closed and his head down, hands limp at his sides now. “If they say, who cares if one more light goes out in the sky of a million stars…” His voice broke again, thick with emotion and Rey could hear the tears without seeing his face.

 

She nodded to Poe, but he gave her a confused look, wide eyed and shrugging as if he didn’t know what to do.

 

“It flickers flickers…” It was now clear even to the audience that Kylo was struggling. Rey had hoped to jump in before anyone noticed, saving Kylo the shame and embarrassment. “Who cares if someone’s time runs out, if a moment is all we are...” She nodded to the guitarist and slid her own guitar off, setting it on the floor of the stage with more care than Kylo had, “We’re Quicker quicker. Who cares if one more light goes out?”

 

She stepped up, sliding her hand over Kylo’s broad back and cupping his shoulder, for the first time in years ignoring the lights and the people and forgetting the world. Forgetting how it would look. “Well I do.”

 

He turned towards her, his throat working as he tried to keep singing, eyes desperate and not really seeing her, wild and animal like. Leaning up, her fingers gently grabbed the mic strapped to his head, her other hand curving around his neck and bringing him down so her voice could join his in the same microphone.

 

Her voice was strong, covering the shakiness of his. “The reminders pull the floor from your feet.” He swallowed, relief coursing through his face as tears finally dripped from his eyes, catching her fingers where they held the tiny microphone wire. “In the kitchen, one more chair than you need…”

 

He sniffed, and Rey nodded reassuringly.  _ I’ve got you. You are not alone. _

 

His voice broke again, “And you’re angry, and you should be, its not fair…” His voice dwindled to nothing, leaving just Rey singing within inches of his face, his dark wet eyes staring into hers like a raining night sky, a roiling storm, and angry ocean of darkness. “Just cause you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” She finished the verse, just as a tech came up behind Kylo, his body hunched to stay out of the way of a moment that was probably being seen by millions of people, and would go down in history. He handed Rey a microphone, and the relief in Kylo’s face when he saw it was palpable.

 

He dropped to his knees, his arms going around her hips, burying his face in her belly, his body racking with sobs she couldn’t hear over the music, but she could feel. One hand held the microphone up, the other circling his dark head, fingers tangled in his hair to keep him comforted against her.

 

The audience was silent as she sang. “If they say, who cares if one more light goes out in the sky of a million stars?” In a stadium of thousands, that should have been a bad sign, but Rey could see the faces of the fans closest to the stage. “It flickers flickers. Who cares when someone’s time runs out, if a moment is all we are, we’re Quicker quicker.” Every single one, from the big tattooed men to the teen girls next to them… Every single one was crying with Kylo. “Who cares if one more light goes out?”

 

It was a moment Rey would remember for the rest of her life. This silent communion of sorrow would stay with her, along with the feel of his strong arms that she knew were capable of violence and destruction, clinging to her like a child. “Well I do.”

 

Hunching over his back, hugging his head tightly as the instrumental portion of the song drifted over then, she stroked his back gently. The moment was over too quickly to offer more comfort than that, but she felt the way his body relaxed a fraction, breathing easier.

 

Someone changed the light pattern, and Rey could feel everything fading to black as a spotlight was brought up on the two of them. “Who cares if one more light goes out in the sky of a million stars,” She didn’t have time to think about what the world would make of this moment. “It flickers flickers.” She didn’t have time to wonder who had changed the lighting, drawing even more attention to this intimate and private moment as it happened on a world stage. “Who cares if someone’s time runs out, if a moment is all we are.” She lifted her head, keeping a hand in Kylo’s hair, stroking him as her face tilted up and her own eyes closed, singing to the heavens. “We’re Quicker quicker. Who cares if one more light goes out…”

 

She felt Kylo’s head move, looking up at her, and she looked back down at him, their eyes locked as she finished the song he had started. “Well I do.”

 

He was clearly calmer now that he didn’t have to sing, able to hold his emotions, but they were still swirling in his eyes. “Well I do.”

 

Her finger flicked over the mic button as the music drifted. The song was over and she dropped to her knees with him, cradling him against her. A few of the backup musicians kept playing, keeping the instrumental portion going, but the other band members and techs slowly began surrounding them, some crouching to join the hug, others standing with their hands on Kylo and Rey.

 

The music ended and the lights went out. There was a heavy pause, then the cheers started. Small, then growing so loud that even on stage with her earbud in, she could barely hear the techs and roadies helping them get up and escorting them off the stage in the dark. Somehow, Kylo had caught her hand and refused to let go.


End file.
